Apparatus for printing multiple line labels



Sept. 15,1959 0. E. HUNT, JR 2,903,961

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MULTIPLE LINE LA BELS Filed April 9, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.1 :0

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, ClaytonEHunLJr:

INVENTOR.

jg ei gggv w ATTORNEY & AGE-NT Sept. 15 1959 c, HUNT, JR 2,903,961

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MULTIPLE LINE LABELS Filed April 9, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 NAME A K NAME 3 ADDRESS DATA HEADER i J J 1.-- :;?1.., *.::1 i -f- 1' Jr 1 -1 w u" I v \I MEMORY MEMORY MEMORY MEMORY LINE I LINE 2 LINES LINE 4 HEADER CARD FIELDS A&E FIELDS 862 F FIELDS Ca 6 FIELDS D62 H Glaglon-E'. HunliJr: F1 94 INVENTOR.

AT TORNEY AGENT Sept. 15, 1959 c. E; HUNT, JR

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MULTIPLE LINE LABELS 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed April 9, 1957 AMPLIFIER r0 RELEASE SIGNALS FROM HEADER CARD "T i l Hl AMPLIFIER UlaylonEZHunbJn INVENTOR.

BY I

g ATTIORNEY 865651?! United States Patent APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MULTIPLE LINE LABELS 7 Clayton E. Hunt, Jr., Rochester, N.Y., assignor to Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application April 9, 1957, Serial No. 651,752 14 Claims. (Cl. 101-93) The invention relates to facsimile apparatus for printing address labels and more particularly to a system in which two arrangements of a label can be printed, one arrangement normally being printed and the other arrangement being printed only when designated by its respective medium or card.

In advertising, mailing, publishing and other businesses, punched cards are utilized to print an address label which, after printing, is afiixed to the circular, letter, magazine, etc. for the purpose of designating the recipients name, address, city and State. Such cards, in addition to the address information, usually carry additional information in the form of data, such as, occupation, date of receipt, subscription expiration date, etc. The card isusually divided into a number of fields or zones with specific information punched into each field. For instance, the first field contains the name, the second field the street address, the third zone the city and State and the fourth zone any personal data. However, for one reason or another, the information may not be punched into the same fields, or additionalr'fields may be required. In the magazine publishing field, as an example, two names are often given by'the subscriber, that is, his personal name and the name of his employer particularly when it is preferred to have the magazine delivered to his business address. Accordingly,more fields are required for the pertinent data than when the mailing is directly to the subscribers home address.

The requirement for the additional fields has been accomplished by providing header cards which contain information common to all cards and in most instances this is the city-state line of the address. As is well known, punched cards contain from eighty to ninety columns in which coderepresentative of each character can be punched in. For address labels the cards are usually divided into four fields; the home address card having the name in the first field, the street address in the second field and any pertinent data in the third field, and the business address card having the name in the first field, the business name in the second field, the address in the third field and any pertinent data on the fourth field. With this system, it is necessary to provide a header card for the city-State line on the label. For the home address card, the city-State line can be conveniently added to provide the full address. However, the business address will then have to have five lines to produce the full label. In order to provide a label of pleasing appearance and to eliminate the expense of additional printing heads, it would be desirable to provide a label having a predetermined number of lines with the necessary information uniformly printed on each label.

In the copending patent application, Serial No. 394,- 926, filed November 30, 1953, and in which I am a co inventor, an arrangement is disclosed by which the signals derived sequentially from a punched card can be stored in any predetermined order to provide a label in which the lines are uniformly arranged irrespective of their arrangement on the card. However, this arrangement does not provide for a number of lines greater than the nuinber of fields on the card.

The present invention is, therefore, concerned with the printing of two arrangements of address labels in which one arrangement is normally printed and any card requiring the second arrangement automatically conditions the storage of the signals for this second arrangement. It is necessary, of course, that the cards for each arrangement have the corresponding information punched in corresponding fields. It is not necessary, however, for the information to be in fields corresponding to the lines of the label. For instance, the name need not appear in the first field but must appear in the same field in all cards for one arrangement of the label. In addition, the invention permits the arrangement of lines on the cards of a group to be easily accommodated to the lines of the label.

The primary object of the invention is, therefore, to provide a system in which signals derived successively from columns of code on a medium are distributed into storage in one of two orders controlled by the medium from which the signals are derived.

Another object of the invention is to provide a system in which signals derived successively from columns of code on a punched card are distributed into storage in one of two orders controlled by the respective card to provide for printing an address label in accordance with the order of storage.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide for the printing from punched cards of an address label of a predetermined number of lines in two arrangements of lines, one arrangement being normally printed and the other arrangement being printed only upon determination by designated cards.

And still another object of the invention is the provision for printing from punched cards two arrangements of a four line address label in which one arrangement is derived from a plurality of cards having data punched in successive columns of three fields and from a single field of a header card and the second arrangement is derived from a plurality of cards having data punched in successive columns of four fields and from the single field of the same header card, the second arrangement providing for the data of one of the fields being distributed amongst the four lines and the cards corresponding to the second arrangement being designated by a control mark.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art by the more detailed description which follows.

Reference is now made to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals designate like parts and wherein:

Figs. 1 and 1a show a punched card and the label corresponding thereto, respectively, in accordance with one arrangement of a four line address label;

Figs. 2 and 2a show a second punched card and the label corresponding thereto, respectively, in accordance with-a second arrangement of a four line address label;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic representation showing the distribution of data on the cards for the two arrangements of a four line address label;

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic representation showing the interconnection of the timing pulses between two plugboards in accordance with the two arrangements of the address label lines;

Fig. 5 is a detail circuit diagram of the control tube and memory means associated with each card column and the trigger circuit for determining the order of signal storage; and

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of the circuitry for printing the address label.

With reference to Figs. 1-3, card is shown as having fields A, B, C and D with information punched in only the first three fields, that is fields A, B and C. Card -11 is also provided with four fields E, F, G and H with information punched in each field. It will be noted that fields A and E, B and G and C and H contain the same punched-in information, that is, the name, street address and data whereas field D is blank and field F contains a second name. As is well known, the information comprising a series of characters which can be letters and/ or numbers is punched in successive columns of the card in the proper fields.

If the cardslO and 11 are intermixed and moved past a sensing station individually and successively in spaced relation, a number of pulses will be derived from each column of a card and these pulses will be representative of the character in each of said columns. If these pulses are stored and then read out of storage for actuating a printer head, a three-line label will be obtained from card 10 and a four-line label will be obtained from card 11, both labels being incomplete in that the city-State line is missing. This information, the city-State line,

can be punched in field D of card 10 but cannot be added to card 11. If the city-State line is added by a header having a common line, such as the city-State line, which is contained on a header card.

In Fig. 3, the distribution of storage of the signals is shown diagrammatically and the resulting labels are shown in Figs. la and 2a. A memory group isshown in Fig. 3 for each of the lines on labels 13 and 14 and 1 the blocks Name A, Name B, Address, Data and Header are representative of the fields on cards 10 and 11 and the field common to each type of card on the header card. For label 13, the characters for the name are derived from field A and read into the memory for line 1,

the address characters are derived from field B and read into the memory for line 2, the data characters are derived from field C and read into the memory for line 4, there are no signals derived from field D, and the city- State line characters are derived from the header card and read into the memory for line 3. This order of arrangement of the lines for label 13, as derived from card 10 and a header card is denoted by the full lines in Fig. 3. Sincecards 11 present a different order of information on the cards, each of cards 11 is designated by a control mark or punching 12 which is located in the first column of each card and preferably between any two rows of code. Control mark 12 provides for a change in the normal order of character and line distribution just described to provide a second arrange ment as shown on label 14 in Fig. 2a. For label 14, the name characters are derived from field E and read into the memory for line 1, the second name characters are derived from field F and read into the memory for line 2, the address characters are derived from field Gy and read into the memory for line 3, the data characters are derived from field H and read into the memories for lines 1, 2, 3 and 4 on a predetermined allocation basis, and the city-State characters are derived from the header card and read into the memory for line 4. This order of the arrangement of the liens for label 14, as derived from card 11 and a header card is denoted by the dotted lines in Fig. 3.

The derivation of the character signals and the storage of said signals will be best understood by a complete description of an embodiment of the invention as shown in Fig. 6. Cards 10 and 11 are usually filed alphabetically with respect to the header card, that is, the header card for Anywhere, Conn. will be followed by cards 10 and 11 in alphabetical order by name. This arrangement can vary, however, depending on the system and purpose for which the cards are used, since the header card may designate some other line common to all cards other than city and State. The header card is then positioned with respect to a group: of cont-acts, as shown in the above-mentioned patent application, to provide a number of pulses sequentially before scanning of each card. Cards 10 and 11 are then stacked in a conventional feeder for moving said cards cyclically and in spaced relation past a sensing station 15. Sensing station 15 comprises a series of apertures 16 "in plate 17 which correspond to the possible code positions in each column on cards 10 and 11, a lamp 18 and a lens system 19 for uniformly illuminating said apertures, and a group of light-sensitive cells 20, one of said cells being aligned with each of said apertures 16. As each of said cards is moved over apertures '16, the apertures in each column thereof permit light to be transmitted to its respective cell. Since each character, that is, letter or number, is designated by a different arrangement of apertures to provide a code representative of the character, the group of cells .20 Will provide a number of pulses corresponding thereto for the character represented in each column of the card. Since cards 10 and 11 are the well-known type of IBM card and the apparatus for p'rmting the labels is operated in response to a binary-six code, ,it is necessary to convert the pulses derived from each col umn on the cards into a binary-six code. This is accomplished by any well known converter circuit disclosed in the pending application Serial No. 618,005, filed October 24, 1956, in my name and that of Russell G. Thompson.

Disc 22 is provided with a number of radial slots 23 equivalent to at least the number of columns in each card plus the number of columns to be used firom the header card. Disc 22 is interconnected to the means for advancing the cards so that a timing pulse derived from each of slots 23 by means of lamp 24 and light-sensitive cell 25 will be in synchronism with the pulses derived from thesensing of each column on the cards in station 15. The timing pulses from cell 25 are amplified by a conventional amplifier circuit 26 which provides two timing pulses for each input. One of these timing pulses is transmitted to each of the six amplifier-gating circuits 27 to which converter circuit 21 also transmits via lines 28 the binary-six signals corresponding to the pulses derived from cells 20. Circuits 27 provide electrical signals, upon coincidence of a timing pulse with the pulses on one or more of lines 28, on one or more of output lines 29 which are individual to the character represented thereby.

As shown in Fig. 3, each of the lines on labels 13 and 14 has a corresponding memory means for storing the electrical signals representative of each character in its respective line. In the embodiment of the invention being described, each of labels 13 and 14 are of a length, measured from center to center of the perforations, corresponding to twenty-seven characters and provide for the actual printing of twenty-four characters in each line. The memory means for each line comprises, therefor, twenty-seven units 30, three units being utilized for spacing with respect to the perforations and the remainder for storing the electrical signals of each possible character in the line. Each of units 30, as shown in Fig. 5, comprises six magnetic cores 31, each core having an input winding 32, a read-out winding 33 and an output winding 34. One end of each of windings 32 is connected, respectively, to one of lines 29, each of the other ends being serially connected to the anode of the control thyratron 60. Windings 32 are serially connected with the anode -of output control thyratron 36 and a voltage source 37.

One end of eachof output windings 33 is connected to ground and the other end to an output line 39 which is common to corresponding cores 'ineach'of said units. As is evident from Fig. 5, each memory unit comprises six cores in accordance with the number of elements in the binary code so that for each column which is scanned the corresponding binary code signals are stored in the equivalent cores. Each core has the property that a pulse in its winding 32 will magnetize the core in one direction and a pulse in winding 33 will magnetize the core in the opposite direction, winding 34 having an output only when the direction of magnetization is reversed.

The other timing pulses derived from amplifier 26 are transmitted to ring chain 40 which comprises a number of units at least equivalent to the total number of code columns on the cards plus the number of columns used in the header card. Since the control mark 12 is punched in the first column of each of cards '11 and each IBM card contains eighty possible code columns, the remaining seventy-nine columns are then divided into the necessary fields. In the embodiment being described, the first three fields comprise twenty columns each and the fourth field, that is both fields D and H, have nineteen columns. It is to be understood, of course, that any division of the columns can be made in accordance with the card system requirements. The units 41 of ring chain 40 have the property of being stepped along by each of the other timing pulses from amplifier 26 to provide a series of sequential output pulses. It should be pointed out that the signals derived from the header card are read in before each card so that the ring chain units 41 are stepped during the interval between successive cards. In Fig. 6 only certain units of the ring chain 40 for each of the four fields on cards 10 and 11 as well as for the header card are shown to permit showing the distribution of the sequential output pulses derived therefrom to provide the two arrangements of the lines for labels 13 and 14.

Plate 17 is provided with two aligned apertures 43 and 44, each being arranged between any two lines of code so as not to be intercepted by any code apertures, and which are illuminated from below to transmit light to light-sensitive cells 45 and 46 aligned with said apertures. The relationship of apertures 43 and 44 to aperture 16 is such that the columns of code on the header card can be read in before a card which intercepts apertures 43 and 44 reaches apertures 16. In other words, successive cards must be spaced by a sufficient distance to permit ring chain 40 to be stepped a number of times equivalent to the number of code columns on the header card.

With respect to cards 10 and 11, the first column is utilized for control mark 12 which appears only in cards 11. Fields A, B, and C of card 10 and fields E, F and G of card 11 are each allotted twenty columns of code,

the remaining field on each card, that is, fields D and H containing only nineteen columns. 11 the header card is also allotted twenty columns of code, then the total possible columns will be one hundred. It is to be understood, of course, that the above allocation of columns is only an assumption and that any division of the columns can be made. However, since the label is also assumed to have not more than twenty-four characters in a line, the division of the card must be based on the number of possible characters in a label line and the number of lines on the label. From the description to follow, it will be evident that these factors may vary and the invention provides for such variations.

Since labels 13 and 14 are the equivalent of twentyseven characters in length and are capable of twenty-four possible characters in each line, then the number of memory units 30 will be ninety-six. With the allocation of the information on cards 14) and 11 and the labels 13 and 14 derived therefrom, it is necessary to determine the information that is to appear in each label line. Ac-

cordingly, one of the lines of label 14 must be distributed amongst the other lines and in the label shown, it has been "idet'erm'inedthat it is most easily accomplished with respect to the data line. This is accomplished by utilizing twenty character'spaces on each line of label 14 for the name, second name, address and city-State information, thereby allowing four character spaces in each line for data information.

As a card 10 or 11 covers aperture 43 as it is moved toward sensing station 15, a pulse is derived from cell 45 which is amplified by amplifier circuit 50. The amplified pulse is delivered to the first unit of ring chain 40 together with a pulse derived from disc 22 to initiate stepping of ring chain 40 by the successive pulses from disc 22 and amplifier circuit 26, each unit 41 of ring chain 40 providing an output pulse as they are stepped successively by the pulses derived from disc 22. The output pulses from the first twenty units serve to release the information on the header or fixed card to lines 28 via converter circuit 21, as described in the above copending application Serial No. 394,926, this read-in from the header card occurring during the interval that the card which covered aperture 43 is being moved toward sensing station 15. 1f the card being advanced is a card 11, then a pulse will be derived by cell 46 from control mark 12. This pulse is amplified by amplifier circuit 48 and the amplified pulse is delivered to fiip-flop circuit 65 for a purpose to be described hereinafter.

As shown in Figs. 4 and 6, the output pulses from units 41 are interconnected between two plug boards 51 and 52. With reference to Fig. 4, the first units of a group associated with each field are shown as connected to plug boards 51 and 52 to provide labels 13 and 14. The first units 41 to the left, designated A, N, Y and W, are the units for releasing the signals derived from the header card and are connected to contacts 149-168 on plug board 51 and also to contacts 11731192 on plug board 52. With the twenty-first pulse from disc 22, the first column of the card is aligned with apertures 16; however, since a signal cannot be derived from the control mark 12 in this column on cards 11, there is no signal for storage to be derived from this column. As shown in Fig. 4, whether a card 10 or 11 is being sensed, the outputs of the twenty-second through forty-first units of ring chain 40 for fields A and E are connected to contacts 11-120 on plug board 51 and to contacts 111-1126 on plug board 52. For fields B and F, the outputs for the fortysecond through sixty-first units of ring chain 40 are connected to contacts -144 On plug board 51 and contacts 1125-1144 on plug board 52. For fields C and G, the outputs for the sixty-second through the eighty-first units of ring chain 40 are connected to contacts 173192 on plug board 51 and to contacts 1149-1I68 0n plug board 52. Since field D contains no punched-in information, the outputs of the eighty-second through the one hundredth unit of ring chain 40 are connected only with respect to field H, the eighty-third through the eighty-sixth units being connected to contacts 1121-1124, the eighty-eighth through the ninety-first units being connected to contacts 1145-1148, the ninety-third through the ninety-sixth units being connected to contacts 1169-1172 and the ninetyeighth through the hundredth units being connected to contacts II93II96. By interconnecting the output pulses of ring chain 40 to plug boards 51 and 52, two orders of pulses are derived from each stepping of ring chain 40.

The means for controlling the order of pulses to be delivered to said memory means, see Figs. 5 and 6, comprises control thyratron 60 associated with each of memory units 30. Each of thyratrons 60 has dual grids 61 and 62, an anode 63 and a cathode 64 connected to ground. Grid 61 is connected to one of the contacts on plug board 51 and grid 62 is connected to one of the contacts on plug board 52, plate 63 being connected to the read-in coils 32 of its respective memory unit. A flip-flop circuit 65 comprising a duo-triode tube 66, which is normally maintained so that its right-hand side, as seen in Fig. 5, is conducting, has its anode 67 on the conducting side serially connected with resistance 68 and the grid space provides the equivalent of one character.

61 of each thyratron 60 through a resistance 69. Each of grids 62 is also connected through a resistance 70 in series with resistance 71 and the left anode 72 of tube 66. Normally, flip-flop circuit 65 maintains each of grids 62 at substantially ground level and the pulse delivered by any unit of ring chain 40 to one of the contacts on plug board 52 to which grid 62 is connected is not suflicient to render tube 60 conductive. On the other hand, the bias on grid 61 is such that the pulse delivered by any unit of ring chain 40 to one of the contacts on plug board 51 is sufficient to render tube 60 conductive and with conduction of tube 60 its respectivememory means is then receptive to storage of the signals appearing on lines 29.

The left hand grid of tube 66 is connected to amplifier 48. As mentioned above, amplifier 48 provides an out put pulse only with the sensing of a control mark 12 on cards 11. On the sensing of mark 12, the pulse derived therefrom causes flip-flop circuit 65 to switch conduction, thereby placing the grid 61 of each of tubes 60 at ground potential and placing the proper bias on each of grids 62. Each of tubes 60 will now be responsive to the pulses derived from ring chain 40 via only plug board 52. From the foregoing description, it is evident that control mark 12, flip-flop circuit 65 and control tubes 60 provide a means for rendering memory means 30 receptive to storage of signals in either of two orders, the pulses derived for one order of storage being blocked as the other order controls storage of the electrical signals and the order to be used being determined by the card to be scanned before it enters the sensing station 15.

Since the pulses derived from disc 22 are in synchronism with the scanning of each card column, the

electrical signals delivered as the output on one or more of lines 29 are intercepted by the memory means 30 rendered receptive by its respective tube 60. By way of example and with reference to Figs. 4 and 6, if the output from the first two units of ring chain 40 are traced, it will be noted that the output pulse from the first unit, assuming a card is being scanned, is connected contact to contact I49 and to contact II73. Since flip-flop circuit 65 is normally conducting on the right-hand side, the pulse on contact II73 will be blocked and the signals on lines 29 which are representative of an A will be stored in the forty-ninth memory unit 30. If a card 11 is being scanned, control mark 12 would have caused flip-flop circuit 65 to switch and tube 60 associated with the seventythird memory unit 30 would then have been rendered receptive to the same signals corresponding to the letter A. Since there are ninety-six memory units, twenty-four being associated with each line of a label, and corresponding memory means of a line are read out simultaneously, in the first instance the letter A would appear in the third line of the label, as seen in label 13 of Fig. 1a, and in the second instance would appear in the fourth line of the label, as seen in the label of Fig. 2a.

A second ring chain 80 comprises twenty-seven units 81 and has twenty-four of said units connected to said memory means 30, the remaining three. units providing number of radial slots 83 equivalent in number to seven times the number of units in ring chain 80, that is one hundred eighty-nine slots. Since each character is printed on the label with respect to a five by seven dot rectangle and a space is required between each character, the five dots with the equivalent of one dot on each side for the A sec and disc 84 is provided with a single radial slot 85 and is rotated with disc 82. Lamp 86 is arranged between discs 82 and. 84 with a light sensitive cell 87 aligned with the slots in disc 82 and lamp 86 and a second light sensitive cell 88 aligned with said lamp and the slot in disc 84. The pulses derived from disc 82 are amplified by amplifier circuit 89 and each output pulse therefrom causes the flip-flop circuits 90 to switch successively. Flip-flop circuits 90 comprise seven units corresponding to a space on either side of the character and five units equivalent to the five dot dimension of the character. The last unit of flip-flop circuit 89 is connected to ring chain and provides a stepping pulse therefor. As each unit of ring chain 80 is stepped, the output pulse derived therefrom is connected to the grid of its respective tube 36 whose anode is in series with the read out coils 33 of the memory unit to release any signals stored in cores 31. The output signals released to one or more of lines 38 are transmitted to decoding and synthesizing circuits 91. As pointed out hereinbefore, there are twenty-four memory units 30 associated with each label line and the memory units for each line are read out sequentially and simultaneously so that each unit of ring chain 80 is connected to the grids of four corresponding tubes 36. Also, each label line has associated therewith its own decoding and synthesizing circuits 91 as well as a matrix circuit 92 and a printer, designated broadly by the numeral 93. Accordingly, although memory units 30 are capable of receiving signals from amplifiers 27 in one of the orders determined by plug boards 51 and 52 and cards 10 and 11, for the purpose of read out to actuate printer 93 the memory units are grouped according to the number of lines on the label for controlling a printer individual to each line. Flip-flop circuits and ring chain 80 can, however, be common to each group of memory means.

The decoding and syntheisizing circuits 91 as Well as the matrix circuit 92 are the same as the equivalent circuits disclosed in U.S. application, Serial No. 394,926, mentioned above and control the actuation of printer 93. Paper tape 94 and carbon tape 95 are fed over an anvil roller 96 and beneath a plurality of stylii 97. Seven stylii are utilized for a character in accordance with the five by seven dot character described above and in response to the electrical signals delivered thereto by its respective matrix circuit 92 will cause the individual characters of its respective line to be on tape 94. Stylii 97 are moved into contact with carbon tape 94, paper tape 95 and roller 96 to transfer the carbon to the paper tape in the form of small dots in a manner described more fully in U.S. Patent Nos. 2,659,652 and Re. 23,713.

Since the card cycle is determined by the readout of the signals from memory units 30 and actuation of stylii 97 and read-in of the signals from the header card and cards 10 or 11 can occur at a much faster rate, the slots 23 on disc 22 for stepping ring chain 40 will be arranged within only the latter portion of the read-out cycle. In the instant case, disc 22 will be provided with slots 23 arranged in the portion of the periphery corresponding to the equivalent of the last nine units of ring chain 80 so that read-in of signals will be occurring at the same time as read-out but at a much faster rate. Ring chain 80 is initiated by the pulse derived from the single slot 85 in disc 84 which is rotated together with disc 82. Amplifier circuit 98 provides an output to the first unit of ring chain 80 and with the pulse derived from flip-flop circuit 90, the units of ring chain 80 are stepped sequentially.

While the invention has been described with respect to signals derived from punched cards, it is to be understood that it is as readily applicable to signals derived from a magnetic tape or any other medium on which characters can be represented by code arranged in successive columns and individual to each character. The invention is also capable of being adapted to codes other than a binarysix code, and if the characters are coded in a binary-six arrangement then the sensed signals are transmitted directly to the respective amplifier-gating circuits without any need for conversion circuit 21. Also, if there is no 9 need for a header card, that is, if all the information is contained in the fields of twocards, the fields can be readily shifted to any desired lineto obtain the desired arrangement of the information on each label line.

Since other modifications of the invention will be apparent to those skilled inthe art, the invention is not to be limited to the embodiment disclosed and described herein but is defined by the appended claims.

Having now particularly described my invention, What I desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States and what I claim is: a

1. system for distributing in at least two predeterinined orders coded character signals received in sequence, the signals for one of said orders being preceded by a control signal, comprising means for providing electrical signals individual to the character represented thereby from said coded signals, means for providing a timing pulse in synchronism with said electrical signals for each character, a plug board having one set of contacts to which said timing pulses are connected in accordance with said first predetermined order and a second set of contacts to which said timing pulses are connected in said second predetermined order, control means individual to each character and connected to a contact in each of said sets in accordance with the location of said character in said predetermined orders for providing an output pulse from only one of said timing pulses connected thereto, memory means individual to each character and responsive to said output pulse from said control means for storing said electrical signals in accordance with the distribution of said timing pulses, and means connected to each of said control means for normally maintaining said control means receptive to only the timing pulses of said first order and actuated by said control signal for rendering said control means receptive to only the timing pulses of said second order.

2. A system for distributing in at least two predetermined ord rs coded character signals received in sequence, the signals for one of said orders being preceded by a control signal, comprising means for providing electrical signals individual to the character represented thereby from said coded signals, means for providing a timing pulse in synchronism'with said electrical signals for each character, a plug board having one set of contacts to which said timing pulses are connected in accordance with said first predetermined order and a second set of contacts to which said timing pulses are connected in said second predetermined order, a control tube individual to each character having an anode, a first control grid connected to one of the contacts of said one set in accordance with the location of the character in said first order and a second control grid connected to one of the contacts in said second set in accordance with the location of the character in said second order, said timing pulses providing an output pulse at said anode thereof, memory means individual to each character and responsive to said output pulse from said control tube for storing said electrical signals in accordance with the distribution of said timing pulses, and means serially connected to the grids of said control tubes for normally maintaining said control tubes receptive to only said timing pulses in said first order and responsive to said control signal for rendering said tubes receptive to only said timing pulses in said second order.

3. A system for distributing in at least two predetermined orders coded character signals received in sequence, the signals for one of said orders being preceded by a control signal, comprising means for providing electrical signals individual to the character represented thereby from said coded signals, means for providing a timing pulse in synchronism with said electrical signals for each character, means for interconnecting each of said timing pulses to provide a first and a second order of distribution of said timing pulses in accordance with the location of the characters in said orders esfitrei means individual to each character and having a timing pulse of each of said orders connected thereto for providing an output pulse therefrom, memory means individual to each character and responsive to said output pulse from said control means for storing said electrical signals in accordance with the distribution of said timing pulses, means connected to each of said control means for normally maintaining said control means receptive to only the timing pulses of said first order and actuated by said control signal for rendering said control means receptive to only the timing pulses of said second order, and means responsive to the electrical signals read out of said memory means sequentially for recording the characters representative thereof:

4. A system for distributing in at least two predetermined orders coded character signals received in sequence, the signals for one of said orders being preceded by a control signal, comprising means for providing electrical signals individual to the character represented thereby from said coded signals, means for providing a timing pulse in synchronism with said electrical signals for each character, a plug board having one set of contacts to which said timing pulses are connected in accordance with said first predetermined order and a second set of contacts to which said timing pulses are connected in said second predetermined order, a control tube individual to each character having an anode, a first control grid con nected to one of the contacts of said one set in accordance with the location of the character in said first order and a second control grid connected to one of the contacts in said second set in accordance with the location of the character in said second order, said timing pulses providing an output pulse at said anode thereof, memory means individual to each character and responsive to said output pulse from said control tube for storing said electrical signals in accordance with the distribution of said timing pulses, means serially connecting the grids of said control tubes for normally maintaining said control tubes receptive to only said timing pulses in said first order and responsive to said control signal for rendering said tubes receptive to only said timing pulses in said second order, and means responsive to the electrical signals read out of said memory means sequentially for recording the characters representative thereof.

5. In apparatus for printing at least two predetermined arrangements of a predetermined number of lines of visual representations of characters on a first medium in accordance with code arranged on a second medium in successive columns representative of said characters and in fields representative of individual lines of characters, one of said arrangements being identified by a designating mark preceding said columns of code, the combination comprising a sensing station, means for continuously advancing said second medium past said sensing station, means for scanning said columns and deriving a control pulse from only said designating mark and a number of simultaneous pulses from each column in accordance with the code in each column and individual to the character represented thereby, means operatively connected to said advancing means for providing two timing pulses in synchronism with the scanning of each of said columns, means responsive to said pulses and one of said two timing pulses corresponding thereto for providing electrical signals representative of the character in each of said columns, means responsive to each of the other of said timing pulses for providing two orders of output pulses in accordance with the two predetermined arrangements of said lines, means for normally maintaining transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for one predetermined arrangement of said lines and actuated by said control pulse to permit transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for the other predetermined arrangement of said lines, a plurality of groups of memory means, the number of groups being equivalent to, said number of predetermined lines, the number of memory means in each group being equivalent to at least the .number of characters in each line, and each memory visual representations of characters on a first medium in.

accordance with code arranged on a second medium in successive columns representative of said characters and .in fields representative of individual lines of characters,

one of said arrangements being identified by a designating mark preceding said columns of code, the combination comprising a sensing station, means for continuously advancing said second medium past said sensing station, means for scanning said columns and deriving a control pulse from only said designating mark and a number of simultaneous pulses from each column in accordance with the code in each column and individual to the character represented thereby, means operatively connected to said advancing means for providing two timing pulses in synchronism with the scanning of each said columns, means responsive to said pulses and one of said two timing pulses corresponding thereto for providing electrical signals representative of the character in each of said columns, means responsive to each of the other of said timing pulses for providing two orders of output pulses in accordance with the two predetermined arrangements of said lines, control means individual to each code column and responsive to an output pulse of each order for providing an output pulse in said two orders, means connected to said control means for normally maintaining transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for one predetermined arrangement of said lines and actuated by said control pulse to permit transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for the other predetermined arrangement of said lines, a plurality of groups of memory means, the number of groups being equivalent to said number of predetermined lines, the number of memory means in each group being equivalent to at least the number of characters in each line, and each memory means being responsive to an output pulse in one of said two orders for storing said electrical signals in accordance therewith, means connected to each of said memory means for simultaneously and sequentially reading out said electrical signals from corresponding memory means in each of said groups, and means responsive to said read out electrical signals for recording the characters representative thereof in each of said lines on said first medium.

7. In apparatus for printing at least two predetermined arrangements of a predetermined number of lines of visual representations of characters on a medium in accordance with code arranged on cards in successive columns representative of said characters and in fields representative of individual lines of characters, each of said cards in one of said arrangements being identified by a designating mark in the first column thereof, the combination comprising a sensing station, means for cyclically advancing said cards in spaced relation to each other past said sensing station, means for scanning the columns of each card and deriving a control pulse from only said cards having a designating mark and a number of simultaneous pulses from each card in accordance with the code in each column and individual to the character represented thereby, means operatively connected to said ing pulses corresponding thereto for providing electrical signals representative of the character in each of said columns, means responsive to each of the other of said timing pulses for providing two orders of output pulses in accordance with the two predetermined arrangements of said lines, a control tube individual to each code column and having an anode, a first grid responsive to an output pulse of one order and a second grid responsive to an output pulse of the other order for providing an output current at said anode, a trigger circuit serially connected to the grids of each control tube for normally maintaining said control tubes receptive to only said output pulses of said one order and switched by said control pulse to render said control tubes receptive to only said output pulses of said other order, a plurality of groups of memory means, the number of groups being equivalent to the number of predetermined lines, the number of memory means in each group being equivalent to the number of characters in each line, and each memory means being responsive to said output current in one of said two orders for storing said electrical signals in accordance therewith, means connected to each of said memory means for simultaneously and sequentially reading out said electrical signals from corresponding memory means in each of said groups, and means responsive to said read out electrical signals for recording the characters representative thereof in each of said lines on said medium.

8. In apparatus for printing two arrangements of the lines of an address label, the characters for said lines being in accordance with code arranged on cards in successive colurrms representative of said characters and in fields representative of individual lines of said characters and the cards to be printed in accordance with one of said arrangements being designated by a control mark, the combination comprising a sensing station, means for cyclically advancing said cards in spaced relation to each other past said sensing station, means for scanning the columns of each card successively and deriving a control pulse from only said cards having a designating mark and a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column and individual to the character represented thereby, means operatively connected to said advancing means for providing two timing pulses in synchronism with the scanning of each of said card columns, means responsive to said pulses and one of said two timing pulses corresponding thereto for providing electrical signals representative of the character in each of said columns, means responsive toeach of the other of said timing pulses for providing two orders of output pulses in accordance with the two arrangements of said lines and characters, means for normally maintaining transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for one arrangement of said lines and actuated by said control pulse to permit transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for the other arrangement of said lines, a plurality of groups of memory means, the number of memory means in each group being equivalent to at least the number of possible characters in a label line, and each memory means being responsive to an ouput pulse of each order for storing said electrical signals in accordance therewith, means connected to each of said memory means for simultaneously and sequentially reading out said electrical signals from corresponding memory means in each of said groups, and means responsive to the read out of said memory means for printing the characters representative thereof in accordance with the arrangement designated by each respective card.

9. In apparatus for printing two arrangements of the lines of an address label, the characters for said lines being in accordance with code arranged on cards in successive columns representative of said characters and in fields representative of individual lines of said characters and the cards to be printed in accordance with one of said arrangements being designated by a control mark, the combination comprising a sensing station, means for cyclically advancing said cards in spaced relation to each other past said sensing station, means for scanning the columns of each card successively and deriving a control pulse from only said cards having a designating mark and a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column and individual to the character represented thereby, means operatively connected to said advancing means for providing two timing pulses in synchronism with the scanning of each of said card columns, means responsive to said pulses and one of said two timing pulses corresponding thereto for providing electrical signals representative of the character in each of said columns, means responsive to each of the other of said timing pulses for providing two orders of output pulses in accordance with the two arrangements of said lines and characters, control means individual to each code column and responsive to an output pulse of each order for providing an output current in only one of said two orders, means connected to said control means for normally maintaining transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for one arrangement of said lines and actuated by said control pulse to permit transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for the other arrangement of said lines, a plurality of groups of memory means, the number of groups being equivalent to the number of label lines, the number of memory means in each group being equivalent to at least the number of possible characters in a label line, and each memory means being responsive to said current pulse of each order for storing said electrical signals in accordance therewith, means connected to each of said memory means for simultaneously and sequentially reading out said electrical signals from corresponding memory means in each of said groups, and means responsive to the read out of said memory means for printing the characters representative thereof in accordance with the arrangement designated by each respective card.

10. In apparatus for printing two arrangements of the lines of an address label, the characters for said lines being in accordance with code 'alranged on cards in successive columns representative of said characters and in fields representative of individual lines of said characters and the cards to be printed in accordance with one of said arrangements being designated by a control mark, the combination comprising a sensing station, means for cyclically advancing said cards in spaced relation to each other past said sensing station, means for scanning the columns of each card successively and deriving a control pulse from only said cards having a designating mark and a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column and individual to the character represented thereby, means operatively connected to said advancing means for providing two timing pulses in synchronism with the scanning of each of said card columns, means responsive to said pulses and one of said two timing pulses corresponding thereto for providing electrical signals representative of the character in each of said columns, means responsive to each of the other of said timing pulses for providing two orders of output pulses in accordance with the two arrangements of said lines and characters, a control tube individual to each code column and having an anode, a first grid responsive to an output pulse of one order and a second grid responsive to an output pulse of the other order for providing an output current at said anode in only one of said two orders, a trigger circuit serially connected to the grids of each control tube for normally maintaining said control tubes receptive to only said output pulses of said one order and switched by said control pulse to render said control tubes receptive to only said output pulses of said other order, a plurality of groups of memory means, the number of groups being equivalent to the number of label lines, the number of memory means in each group being equivalent to at least the number of possible characters in a label line, and each memory means being responsive to said output current of each order for storing said electrical signals in accordance therewith, means connected to each of said memory means for simultaneously and sequentially reading out said electrical signals from corresponding memory means in each of said groups, and means responsive to the read out of said memory means for printing the characters representative thereof in accordance with the arrangement designated by each respective card.

11. In apparatus for printing two arrangements of a four line address label, the first arrangement comprising a name line, an address line, a city-State line and a data line and the second arrangement comprising a name line, a second name line, an address line and a city-State line with the data line distributed amongst said lines in a predetermined allocation, the characters for said lines being in accordance with code arranged on cards in successive columns representative of said characters and in fields representative of individual lines of said characters, the cards to be printed in accordance with said second arrangement being designated by a control mark, and each label having one line common to each arrangement in a field of a header card, the combination comprising a sensing station, means for cyclically advancing said cards in spaced relation to each other past said sensing station, means for scanning the columns of each card successively and deriving a control pulse from only said cards having a designating mark and a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column and individual to the character represented thereby, means for deriving a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column of said header card and individual to the character represented thereby and preceding said pulses of each card, means operatively connected to said advancing means for providing two timing pulses in synchronism with the scanning of each of said card columns and with said pulses from said header card, means responsive to said card pulses and said header card pulses and one of said two timing pulses corresponding thereto for providing electrical signals representative of the character in each of said columns, means responsive to each of the other of said timing pulses for providing two orders of output pulses in accordance with the two arrangements of said lines and characters, means for normally maintaining transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for the first arrangement of said lines and actuated by said control pulse to permit transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for the second arrangement of said lines, a plurality of groups of memory means, the number of groups being equivalent to said number of label lines, the number of memory means in each group being equivalent to at least the number of possible characters in a label line, and each memory means being responsive to an output pulse of each order for storing said electrical signals in accordance therewith, means connected to each of said memory means for simultaneously and sequentially reading out said electrical signals from corresponding memory means in each of said groups, and means responsive to the signals read out of said memory means for printing the characters representative thereof in accordance with the arrangement designated by each respective card.

12. In apparatus for printing two arrangements of a four line address label, the first arrangement comprising a name line, an address line, a city-State line and a data line and the second arrangement comprising a name line, a second name line, an address line and a city-State line with the data line distributed amongst said lines in a predetermined allocation, the characters for said lines being in accordance with code arranged on cards in successive colurrms representative of said characters and in fields representative of individual lines of said characters, the cards to be printed in accordance with said second arrangement being designated by a control mark, and each label having one line common to each arrangement in a field of a header card, the combination comprising a sensing station, means for cyclically advancing said cards in spaced relation to each other past said sensing station, means for scanning the columns of each card successively and deriving a control pulse from only said cards having a designating mark and a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column and individual to the character represented thereby, means for deriving a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column of said header card and individual to the character represented thereby and preceding said pulses of each card, means operatively connected to said advancing means for providing two timing pulses in synchronism with the scanning of each of said card columns and with said pulses from said header card, means responsive to said card pulses and said header card pulses and one of said two timing pulses corresponding thereto for providing electrical signals representative of the character in each of said columns, means responsive to each of the other of said timing pulses for providing two orders of output pulses in accordance with said two arrangements of said lines and characters, control means individual to each code column and responsive to an output pulse of each order for providing an output current in only one of said two orders, means connected to said control means for normally maintaining transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for the first arrangement of said lines and actuated by said control pulse to permit transmittal of said output pulses only in the order for the second arrangement of said lines, a plurality of groups of memory means, the number of groups being equivalent to said number of label lines, the number of memory means in each group being equivalent to at least the number of possible characters in a label line, and each memory means being responsive to an output current in one of said two orders for storing said electrical signals in accordance therewith, means connected to each of said memory means for simultaneously and sequentially reading out said electrical signals from corresponding memory means in each of said groups, and means responsive to the signals read out of said memory means for printing the characters representative thereof in accordance with the arrangement designated by each respective card.

13. In apparatus for printing two arrangements of a four line address label, the first arrangement comprising a name line, an address line, a city-State line and a data line and the second arrangement comprising a name line, a second name line, an address line and a city-State line with the data line distributed amongst said lines in a predetermined allocation, the characters for said lines being in accordance with code arranged on cards in suc cessive columns representative of said characters and in fields representative of individual lines of said characters, the cards to be printed in accordance with said second arrangement being designated by a control mark, and each label having one line common to each arrangement in a field of a header card, the combination comprising a sensing station, means for cyclically advancing said cards in spaced relation to each other past said sensing station, means for scanning the columns of each card successively and deriving a control pulse from only said cards having a designating mark and a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column and individual to the character represented thereby, means for deriving a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column of said header card and individual to the character represented thereby and preceding said pulses of each card, means operatively connected to said advancing means for providing two timing pulses in synchronism with the scanning of each of said card columns and with said pulses from said header card, means responsive to said card pulses and said header card pulses and one of said two timing pulses corresponding thereto for providing electrical signals representative of the character in each of said columns, means responsive to each of the other of said timing pulses for providing two orders of output pulses in accordance with said two arrangements of said lines and characters, a control tube individual to each code column and having an anode, a first grid responsive to an output pulse of one order and a second grid responsive to an output pulse of the other order for providing an output current at said anode in only one of said two orders, a trigger circuit serially connected to the grids of each control tube for normally maintaining said control tubes receptive to only said output pulses of said one order and switched by said control pulse to render said control tubes receptive to only said output pulses of said other order, a plurality of groups of memory means, the number of groups being equivalent to said number of label lines, the number of memory means in each group being equivalent to at least the number of possible characters in a label line, and each memory means being responsive to said output current in one of said two orders for storing said electrical signals in accordance therewith, means connected to each of said memory means for simultaneously and sequentially reading out said electrical signals from corresponding memory means in each of said groups, and means responsive to the signals read out of said memory means for printing the characters representative thereof in accordance with the arrangement designated by each respective card.

14. In apparatus for printing two arrangements of a four line address label, the first arrangement comprising a name line, an address line, a city-State line and a data line and the second arrangement comprising a name line, a second name line, an address line and a city-State line with the data line distributed amongst said lines in a predetermined allocation, the characters for said lines being in accordance with code arranged on cards in successive columns representative of said characters and in fields representative of individual lines of said characters, the cards to be printed in accordance with said second arrangement being designated by a control mark, and

each label having one line common to each arrangement in a field of a header card, the combination comprising a sensing station, means for cyclically advancing said cards in spaced relation to each other past said sensing station, means for scanning the columns of each card successively and deriving a control pulse from only said cards having a designating mark and a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column and individual to the character represented thereby, means for deriving a number of simultaneous pulses in accordance with the code in each column of said header card and individual to the character represented thereby and preceding said pulses of each card, means operatively connected to said advancing means for providing two timing pulses in synchronism with the scanning of each of said card columns and with said pulses from said header card, means responsive to said card pulses and said header card pulses and one of said two timing pulses corresponding thereto for providing electrical signals representative of the character in each of said columns, a ring chain having a number of units at least equivalent to the number of possible characters on said label and stepped in response to each of the other of said timing pulses for providing an output pulse from each of said units successively, a. plug board having one set of contacts to which said output pulses are connected in an order in accordance with the one arrangement of said characters and said lines and a second set of contacts to which said output pulses are connected in an order in accordance with the other arrangement of said characters and said lines, a control tube individual to each code column and having an anode, a first grid connected to one of the contacts in said one set in accordance with the loaction of the character representative of said code column in said one arrangement of said lines, a second grid connected to one 17 of the contacts in said second set in accordance with the location of the character representative of said code column in said other arrangement of said lines for providing a current at said anode in only one of said two orders, a trigger circuit serially connected to each first grid and to each second grid of each control tube for normally maintaining said control tubes receptive to only the order of the output pulses on said one set of contacts and switched by said control pulse to render said control tubes receptive to only the order of the output pulses on said second set of contacts, a plurality of groups of memory means, the number of groups being equivalent to said number of label lines, the number of memory means in each group being equivalent to at least the number of possible characters in a label line, and each memory means being responsive to said anode current for storing said electrical signals in the order determined thereby, means connected to each of said 18 memory means for simultaneously and sequentially reading out said electrical signals from corresponding memory means in each of said groups, and means responsive to the signals read out of said memory means for printing the characters representative thereof in accordance with the arrangement designated by each respective card.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,493,858 Carroll et al Jan. 10, 1950 2,524,029 Carroll et al. Oct. 3, 1950 2,528,411 Beattie et al Oct. 31, 1950 2,569,829 Rabenda Oct. 2, 1951 2,615,629 Dayger et a1 Oct. 28, 1952 2,658,682 Lake et a1 Nov. 10, 1953 2,750,113 Coleman June 12, 1956 

